Thesis on "Responsibilities of VP in the Absence of the President"

Thesis 5 pages (1411 words) Sources: 4 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Vice-President

THE RESPONSIBILITIES of the VICE PRESIDENT

IN the ABSENCE of the PRESIDENT

Throughout the two hundred and fifty year history of the United States, the men who held the highest office in the land, the Presidency of the United States of America, have faced many overwhelming and dangerous situations, such as when Abraham Lincoln was forced to save the Union against the armies of the Confederacy during the Civil War and when President Franklin D. Roosevelt had to devise a way to save the country from the perils of the Great Depression in the early 1930's.

But more often than not, it was their Vice Presidents, such as Andrew Johnson under Lincoln, Harry S. Truman under FDR and George Herbert Walker Bush under Reagan, who woke up one morning and found themselves in an unexpected dilemma because the President had suddenly fallen gravely ill or had been shot by an assassin's bullet, thus forcing him to assume the duties of the President.

Historically speaking, the office of the Vice President is not as old as that of the President and "did not exist under the Continental Congresses nor the Articles of Confederation;" however, the constitution of the state of New York in 1777 did have some reference to the office of the Vice President, for as Alexander Hamilton notes in the Federalist Papers (No. 68), the Lieutenant Governor, "chosen by the people at large (and) who presides in the Senate," does have the power to assume the position of governor if and when he becomes incapacitated or dies in office. Therefore, due to this situation, the Vice President of the United States would be "authorized...

<br />

A to exercise the authorities and discharge the duties of the President" under special circumstances ("Vice Presidents of the United States," Internet).

In the United States Constitution of 1787, the office of the Vice President is laid out in a rather strange way, for it is quite vague "about the way the presidential succession would work." In Article II, section 1, we find this short description -- "The Powers and Duties of the said Office (that of the President) shall devolve on the Vice President" ("Vice Presidents of the United States," Internet) when the President is either too ill to maintain his responsibilities in office or has died in office, either through illness or assassination.

One of the most complicated situations related to the Vice President assuming power occurred in 1973 when "President Nixon appointed Gerald R. Ford to replace Spiro Agnew who had resigned" as Vice President; also, in 1974, when Nixon resigned his office, Nelson Rockefeller was appointed as Vice President soon after Gerald Ford became President. This quickly led to an amendment to the U.S. Constitution which permitted "the Vice President to serve as acting President if a President becomes unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office" as a result of unforeseen disasters or circumstances ("Vice Presidents of the United States," Internet).

It should be noted that the Vice President is always chosen by the President, either during a presidential campaign or when the current Vice President dies in office or resigns. Therefore, the Vice President must uphold all of the responsibilities of the President when he assumes power and should be willing to inherit the ideals and principles of the President and pass them on during his term in office.

When President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in April of 1865 by John Wilkes Booth, the Vice President, Andrew Johnson, assumed the office of the Presidency and inherited an entire range of serious problems, such as how to bring the country back together after four terrible years of fighting and what to do with African-Americans and ex-slaves during a time known as Reconstruction. Obviously, although Lincoln had managed to free the slaves with his

Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, Johnson "was entirely overwhelmed by his many problems and in effect failed to live up to the responsibilities of being the President of the United States" (Thomas, 483). For example, Johnson failed to use his power as President to guarantee that all African-Americans after the Civil War would be seen as equal to white Americans and have equal opportunity for jobs and housing.

In early… READ MORE

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